The first stop on Rachel Bernhardt’s journey was to make Drexel history as a top swimmer. From there, she headed to the U.S. Olympic trials. Next up? Olympics 2020.
Senior Rachel Bernhardt seems like she can get comfortable anywhere. But there’s a fever underneath that relaxed demeanor, a hunger for the win. Her intense competitive drive and impressive skill in the water made her the first Drexel swimmer from either the male or female teams to earn a place at the NCAA Division I Swimming and Diving Championships last spring. That accomplishment took her to the 2016 U.S. Olympic trials in June. And the butterflies are already swarming in her gut when she thinks about Olympics 2020.
She’s going to go for it.
Bernhardt started swimming competitively later than many of her peers, which she believes gives her an edge.
“Usually people start at 5,” Bernhardt says. “I started in seventh grade. Which is why I feel like I have so much more in the tank.”
“The exciting thing is she’s continuing to drop time and improve,” says Coach Adam Braun. “She has a ton more potential, in terms of training and transitioning that to racing. If she sticks with it, after she’s done swimming for Drexel, I don’t see any reason that she wouldn’t have a shot at the 2020 Olympic trials.”
During her junior year, Bernhardt set new school records at the CAA Swimming Championships in February 2016 and earned the first two gold medals for the Drexel women’s swimming program. Her time in the 100-yard breaststroke was 1:00.65 and her 200-yard breaststroke time was 2:10.89, beating her previous time in the 100-yard by half a second and a marked improvement in the 200-yard.
More than any other competitor, the swimmer she was most focused on beating was who she was last season. While qualifying for the NCAA is a great milestone, Bernhardt’s main goal was to be significantly faster than her previous time.
Her performance at the NCAAs qualified her for her second U.S. Olympic Trial event as she notched a 2:32.70 in the long course 200 breaststroke. Earlier in the season, Bernhardt qualified for the trials in the 100 breaststroke at the Phillips 66 National Championships in San Antonio, Texas, with a time of 1:10.46.
“At the trials, I was super excited, but it was definitely nerve-wracking,” she says. “You are surrounded by the absolute best swimmers. It was very intimidating. I just went in and tried to do my best.”
And she did get a “best” that day: her fastest time ever in the 100 breaststroke. At 1:10.27, she placed first overall in her heat of 10 swimmers. She lowered her time by 19 hundredths of a second from her qualifying time of 1:10.46.
“I love swimming,” Bernhardt says. “I love being in the pool; after college I know I’m not ready to give it up. So I’m going to keep swimming.”
Until she graduates this summer, though, Bernhardt hopes to leave behind a legacy.
“Hopefully I just paved a path for some new freshmen,” she says. “I want to end my time at Drexel on a good note, I want to leave something behind that people can remember me by.” — with additional reporting by Katie Clark